clair010

Thus, the title of a book by Yves Chiron; published by Angelico Press, 2018. 978-1-62138-                       411-3  (Paperback)                       412-0  (Cloth)                       413-7  (ebook) It is a translation of Annibale Bugnini (1912-1982): Reformateur de la Liturgie. (2016). The translator has made a few very useful explanations and additions. ----------------------------------

"The Pope is infallible in actu, not in habitu -- in his particular pronouncements ex cathedra, not in his state of illumination, as an Apostle might be." Post Scriptum: I thank a friend for the information that Blessed John Henry's second miracle has been unanimously approved. Patent ianuae!! I wonder if we shall hear more about plans for the Canonisation after the CBCEW post-Easter meetiing.

I was recently offered a comment which stated that the enumeration of years as BCE and CE (rather than BC and AD) is of Jewish origin. I was not aware of this narrative, and I have comment on hold.. I will return to consideration of it when readers have instructed me, giving references!

I haven't bored you with opinions about Brexit, because, being totally illiterate in the field of Economics, I have not deemed my views to be worth anything to anybody. Unlike many of the Brexiteers, I don't have the advantage of having read PPE [Politics, Philosophy, and Economics] at this University! But perhaps, as a humble Greatsman, I may, without being slaughtered, make a minor observation

Today, January 28, in many places the Emperor Charles the Great is commemorated liturgically. His canonisation was performed by an antipope (Paschal III, a creature of Barbarossa), and he is not in the Roman Martyrology, so he is nowadays tactfully celebrated as a Beatus. I hope those with a devotion to him will forgive my cynicism when I remark that the article on him in Gueranger is rather

I've never been atracted to the idea of the Unknown Warrior, buried in Westminster Abbey. His corpse was deliberately chosen after the First World War so that nobody should ever know who he was, or even from which theatre of war he came. It has seemed to me that this idea (although I understand its motivations) disregards the sacred reality and particularity of every individual human being. The

Recently, the spouse of our Head of State was involved in a minor traffic accident. Neither he nor anybody else was seriously hurt. He is 97 years old. One of our newspapers ... oops ... perhaps I'd better break off here with terminological explanations. We used to distinguish between 'broadsheet' newspapers and 'tabloids'. The former were reckoned to be more literate than the latter, and their

When Vincent Nichols moved to Westminster, pretty well immediately a major change happened in the Cathedral Sanctuary. The 1970s mobile, now-you-see-it-now-you-don't, altar was taken out of use. I have always given VN credit for this. Few traddies would be prepared to, because Traddidom is much preoccupied with the idea that the priest should be facing in the same direction as the Congregation;

 ... was a son of Evelyn; and himself a very considerable satirist. C.A.P.D.. I gather from a book review that someone has published a selection of his output. The reviewer mentions 'Bron's' comment on the introduction of WCs (I think some dialects of English call them Restrooms or Washrooms) into rural Anglican churches ... observing tartly that such things had been unnecessary in earlier ages

There is a tiny exhibition in the atrium of the New Bod (you young things probably call it the Weston Library) devoted to the old Phi classification in Bodley. This denoted indecent books which undergraduates were not allowed to order up. Not allowed, that is, unless their tutor wrote a note authorising them to do so. Among the exhibits is a note written by C S Lewis authorising one of his

Somewhere on the Internet there is a clip of a couple of homosexuals presenting their son for Baptism in one of those very liberal Catholic Churches that they seem to delight in over the water. One of these parents wittily said that Jesus had had two fathers, and He turned out all right. Possibly like you, I was so irritated by the blasphemy that it was only later that it struck me how illogical

"I am told that some wicked men, not content with their hitherto cruel conduct, are trying to bring in [the] doctrine of inherent infallibility, of which there is not a hint in the definition. Perhaps they would like to go on to call [the Pope] a Vice-God ...".

Papa Ratzinger tried to establish a correct translation of the word pollon [many] in the Eucharistic Prayer. He was unable to secure compliance from some Episcopal Conferences. In this reversed-mirror-image pontificate, PF desires a correct translation of me eisenengkes hemas eis peirasmon [lead us not into temptation] to be replaced by a false one. And the Italian Episcopal Conference was not

Charles Ryder remarks "Since the days when, as a schoolboy, I used to bicycle round the neighbouring parishes, rubbing brasses and photographing fonts, I had nursed a love of architecture, but ... my sentiments at heart were insular and medieval. [Brideshead] was my conversion to the Baroque. Here, under that high and insolent dome, under those coffered ceilings; here, as I passed through those

We have been having some diverting debates in the Lower House of our Legislature; a couple of days ago, the Opposition moved the grand old motion That This House has no confidence in Her Majesty's Government. A rather bumptious young government backbencher, mindful that the best mode of defence is attack, was in the course of an onslaught upon the Right Honourable Gentleman the Member for

When I was an undergraduate, the Faculty of Litterae Humaniores in this University was still enjoying the glorious aftermath of the arrival, in the 1930s, of the flower of European Classical scholarsip from the great German universities. Not least, of Edward Fraenkel, still occupying the Corpus Chair of Latin when I came up in 1960. He, like most of his fellow refugees, was a Jew. Jews were not

Unity Week starts on Thursday January 18 and ends on January 25.                                               EXTRAORDINARY FORM Before the 1960s, January 18 was the Feast of the Chair of S Peter at Rome (while February  22 celebrated his Chair, that is to say, his episcopate, in Antioch). In the Good Old Days, the Wantage Sisters ... who now comprise our Ordinariate Sisters in Birmingham,

In the current period of crisis within the Church Militant, bishops and religious superiors commonly explain that they are unwilling to put their heads above the parapet and to criticise the current management of the Latin Church because they have, they feel, a moral obligation to stay where they are so as to to protect their subjects. It would be mere self indulgence to let off their own steam

January 15, 2011, the Ordinariate of our Lady of Walsingham was erected and Mgr Keith Newton was appointed Ordinary. We invite all our friends to join in our thanksgivings and supplications!! Suggested Extraordinary Form ORDO entry, providing for due commemoration on tomorrow's anniversary: Cras in Ordinariatu: secunda oratio Deus omnium fidelium pastor et rector (cum orationibus Super Oblata et

It is commonly thought, and asserted in the Meejah, that a Bishop is obliged to submit his resignation when he has completed his seventy fifth year of age. This is not quite accurate. What Canon 401 (1) requires is that the Bishop rogatur [is asked] ut renuntiationem ab officio exhibeat Summo Pontifici. This is based upon Christus Dominus [21] of Vatican II, which is vaguer; without mentioning

Surely, it is outrageous that the Belgian regime should outlaw the provision of Kosher and Hallal meat. I seem to remember that the Polish Bishops' Conference opposed, successfully, the adoption of such a law in Poland. I wonder how long it will take for the generality of people to realise that secular liberalism as promoted by the Zeitgeist will give you tyranny; while a robust Catholicism is

Yes; I'm feeling just slightly in favour of the Novus Ordo at this precise moment. Let me tell you why, as you sit comfortably and patiently at your computers ... because this is a tad complicated if you only give it half your attention ... or just scroll impatiently down ... as you sometimes do ... I wasn't born yesterday ... Once upon a time, the Feast of the Epiphany had an Octave. This meant

Some readers are unfamiliar with this phrase. It was used by S Edmund Campion in his Rationes Decem, printed surreptitiously at Stonor House near here and as surreptitiously put on all the seats to be picked up by the University as it gathered for the Act in June 1581. See my paper in Luther and his progeny, Angelico Press, 2017. It refers to the rumour that John Calvin had been branded after

"An ecumenical council has not infrequently created such divisions, and truth is ultimately promoted by what at the time is so very painful."

I read recently on the Internet (yes, I know I should get out more) that by far the greatest cause of human death in 2018 was Abortion, at nearly 42 million. And in another place, I read that the number of abortions in the State of Israel had gone down. This heading reminded me of the classic (but, I gather, apocryphal) headline Small earthquake in Peru Not many deaths. I acknowledge that such

... quotes an unnamed Vatican Cardinal as describing PF thus: an ice-cold, sly machiavellian and a liar. A jolly interesting summary from someone with experience, I thought. His Eminence seems to know what he's talking about. But my wife suggests that a true Machiavellian would not need to tell lies. I would have to concede that telling lies does expose the liar to perils. Take, for example,

... to Traditionalists (real, S Pius V, Julian Calendar Traditionalists) who read this post as they come home from the Missa in Aurora to open their presents.

I first published this in 2011, just as the Ordinariates were starting up. Bishop Leonard's portrait hangs in the study of Mgr Newton, Ordinary of the Ordinariate of our Lady of Walsingham. Bishop Graham departed this world on the Feast of the Epiphany, 2010. It is as if, grieved that the Feast of His Epiphany should have been expunged from the calendars of great swathes of the Latin Church, the

As an Epiphany Present, here is a reprint, with Thread, of a piece from 2010. I wonder how well it has worn ... My dear Wormwood  I must confess to being a little puzzled by your suggestion that the Unholy Office is in any way open to criticism. It is, after all, inappropriate for somebody as high up in the Lowerarchy as yourself to venture upon criticism of any of Our Father's Dicasteries; but

Continues Sedevacantists have argued that the words in the post-Conciliar Form for consecrating Bishops, spiritus principalis, are insufficiently univocal (unambiguous) to denote the ordo episcopalis. I have pointed out that the same problem could be urged against the corresponding words which Pius XII declared to be the Form: ministerii tui summam. This phrase could perfectly well have applied

Continues ... It is argued that the words in the post-Conciliar Pontifical for Consecrating a Bishop are insufficiently precise. But that prayer was used for centuries by Oriental communities in communion with Rome, and dissident communities whose orders the settled praxis of the Holy See for centuries was to accept. It was on this ground that Archbishop Lefebvre himself, upon receiving fuller

For the details, you had better go across to the blog written by my dear Ordinariate friend, Dr Kirk. Don't delay. This is one of the best things he has written. If anyone ever asks you Num quid umquam boni ex Ordinariatu, Dr Kirk's blog is the answer. You can get there, today and every happy day, simply by googling GKIRKUK. Perhaps, however, you should delay just a moment, long enough to absorb

Sometimes one reads traddy criticisms of the abolition of the title "The Circumcision" formerly attached to January 1. There may be a slight confusion here. But before I explain this, I would like to emphasise the importance of celebrating and teaching ... perhaps in Lent and Holy Week ... the profound significance of the Circumcision within the context of our Lord's complete Jewishness and his